In praise of failure
“In 2004, Kim and Chan (KC) carried out torsional oscillator (TO) measurements of solid helium confined in porous Vycor glass and found an abrupt drop in the resonant period below…
September 2012
The folly of shunning Iran
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” said the oft-quoted ancient military strategist Sun-tzu. Our government, as militarist as it is, has decided to ignore this advice and cut…
Q. What will you never see too much of in a Rob Benzie story?
A. Named sources.
Thomas Soderstrom Arrived Last Night…
And his maternal grandmother’s head is not on blogging or politics today.
Liberal Party needs time to do supporter vote right
To paraphrase an old proverb, beware newspaper columnists bearing advice. That certainly applies to John Ibbitson’s column in the Globe this morning, where he takes the Liberal Party to task…
Rally Ready: Girding our loins for Occupy Collingwood…
Will you be downtown at 4? Will there be 100? 300? 23? There’s no question the folks rallying in front of town hall against council’s decision to build two fabric…
Super-scientific poll: who will be the first to bash Warren’s new book?
Everyone knows two things about political people, and political books. One, political people look at the index, and only buy the political book if they see their name. Two, reviewing…
Joe Biden got his jollies too
Joe Biden did not want to be left behind. Obama got a lift from a pizzaman and Biden did even better. Watch the video.
Chicago teachers strike over class size, wages
It all sounds so familiar. Under the false guise of “austerity” and “student’s first” the Chicago public school board wants to eliminate teacher pay increases, increase class sizes and lengthen…
The "Fuck You" Century
Societal comity may fall an early victim to the stresses of the 21st century. The cohesion that marked and underpinned a good many of the achievements of the past century…
Why Don’t The NHL Players Form A Co-operative?
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger What is it exactly that the NHL Owners do to justify the money they make? They don’t skate, check, shoot or score and yet they control professional…
Missed Opportunity: Corporate Conglomerate Buys Shouldice Center
The Ontario Government has missed an opportunity with the sale of the Shouldice Clinic to health care conglomerate, Centric Health. The government could have purchased Shouldice and integrated its services…
You Need to Set the Bar High This Time
For the Liberal Party this is no time to settle for a pretty face or a familiar name. You’re already in the hole, neck deep to be honest, and one…
Is America Still Capable of Legitimate Democracy?
With an electorate as deeply divided as America’s, it’s not unusual for elections to be decided by a point or two. So what happens if one side disenfranchises nine or…
Full Redistribution, New Riding-by-New Riding
Before I forget, I completed my mission to collate all the transpositions for those fancy new 338 ridings we have in Canada. You can see them in the EditGrid widget…
Oh look. Security certificates are in the news again.
I wonder if the Harper government has really thought this one through. A security certificate issued against Hassan Almrei was thrown out by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley in December…
A Q&A With Allan Gregg
Many thanks to Accidental Deliberations for providing information on this Q&A with Allan Gregg, a good companion piece for his Assault On Reason article/speech. This Hill Times article on Gregg’s…
Newfoundland braces for tropical storm Leslie; rain soaks Atlantic Canada
Outside of an arctic blizzard, the worst weather I have ever seen in my life was in Newfoundland — it’s an amazingly beautiful place but when it rains and blows,…
Judicial independence
R. v. Pan, 2012 ONCA 581, released today, has a good summary of what "judicial independence" requires: Judicial independence has three characteristics: security of tenure, financial security and administrative independence.…
Another year of reduced maintenance in our parks and public spaces
As autumn approaches and the leaves start to change colour and fall to the ground you might wonder what happened to all the city gardeners this past summer. Parks and…